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February 28, 2011

I made this lovely, colorful clock for the office of a friend of mine! It matches other things in her office, and makes it more "homey" (her words) :)
I have made another fabric covered clock, for my living room, which I also LOVE! These add so much color and warmth to a room! You can also check out the original tutorial here at Make it and Love it.

I have another unique clock project that I will be posting about soon! I am loving it :) I love clocks so much, that I might dedicate a whole wall in my house to them! Can you imagine the noise?!

February 24, 2011

So, I am finally starting to feel more comfortable with my new Silhouette machine... it cracks me up a little bit when I see other people comment on blogs with the same exact things I was thinking before I opened it...things like, "I have had my silhouette for 2 months and haven't even opened the box yet..." and, "I'm a little scared of my new silhouette, so I haven't opened it..."
I had no idea before I bought it that it would be so intimidating!! Glad I'm not the only one:)
The machine is so small, and unassuming - but there are so many things that run through my head when I look at it! Not the least of which is - if I do it wrong, I have just wasted all this expensive vinyl!!
Luckily, my aunt gave me a great source for vinyl - lots of colors, shipping anywhere in the country, and CHEAP!

So, when I got my yards and yards of vinyl in the mail, I finally started to use it - and stopped caring if it turned out or not :)
I made these HIS and HERS signs for the hooks in the bathroom. Now nobody will use my towel by mistake!! ;)

I made labels for the toy boxes in my kid's room...

And I added vinyl wording to this little red bowl I bought at Walmart for a couple of bucks. This phrase is floating all over blog land - from one of my favorite movies - Pride and Prejudice....

I really needed something to hold some miscellaneous jewelry that had been sitting on my dresser and this works great and looks great!

I am sure you will be seeing many more Silhouette projects from me as I continue to become more adventurous...it really is becoming addicting:)

February 22, 2011

I have seen this idea floating around - and decided that I wanted to make a pretty check book cover for myself!

I couldn't find a tutorial anywhere though, so I figured it out by trial and error, looking at my old boring cover, and here is how I did it!

Cut 2 pieces of fabric 8" x 16" and 1 piece of interfacing 8" x 16".

I used 2 different fabrics, in complementing colors.

Iron the interfacing to 1 of the pieces of fabric.

Place your 2 pieces of fabric right sides together and sew along the outside edge with 1/4" seam allowance. Leave a 2" opening along the LONG side for turning.

Turn right side out through the opening and iron flat.

Top stitch 1/8" from the edge along the 2 short edges.

Then, place pins 3.5" from the short edges to judge where to put the ruffle, and where to fold the fabric.

If you want to add a ruffle, cut a piece of fabric 1.5" wide by 20" long. Sew a long stitch down the middle, and pull one of the threads to gather.
Pin the ruffle on the outside fabric, about 1" in from one set of pins (or in other words, about 5" from one edge).
Sew down the middle of the ruffle to secure.

Next, fold the short edges toward the center along the line that the pins make. See picture below. The outside fabric should be primarily showing, and the ruffle should be on the outside. These folds should be 3.5" inches from each short edge. Pin the folds in place. Make sure the 2" opening used to turn right side out is nicely tucked in.

Top stitch along all 4 edges with 1/8" seam allowance:

As you can see in the picture above, I also tore out the plastic divider from my old check book cover and sewed it right onto this fabric one. I use carbon copy checks, so I really need the plastic thing :)

That's it! Very simple!

You can fit a check book and register easily inside - and your check book now has a beautiful cover that stands out, is easy to find in your purse, and makes life more colorful!

February 19, 2011

My daughter loves to work in the kitchen (real and pretend :) )
I have been wanting to make her an apron for a while - and today I finally sat down to do it....

You can see the other aprons I have made here and here. They were larger - made for teens and adults - but also made from upcycled jeans and colorful fabric.
This one for my 4 year old daughter was made much smaller.

I pieced together a couple bits of jeans, sewing a colorful piece of fabric in the middle.

I also had a toddler apron that I used as a guide - but you could just eyeball it. The final dimensions were 17" tall and 15" wide a the bottom, 7" wide at the top.

I let my daughter pick out some fabric colors that she liked from my stash, and made some ruffles to sew onto the front...

February 16, 2011

When I first started making dinner for my family, and particularly my kids, I had a few go-to recipes in my arsenal, which I made quite often. Most of them came from my mom, who is an excellent cook - and can whip anything together, and make any creation and conglomeration of ingredients taste fantastic!

After a while you have to mix things up a bit, of course, and so I try, just about every week, to make something new - to see if it will become one of the family faves.

So, I read magazines, go to recipe club, peruse recipe blogs, watch the food network, and print off, tear out, or write down recipes that I would like to try. I would say about half of them don't pan out (get it, pan out?...okay not so funny??) but some of them do - and I keep a giant binder of recipes on hand in the kitchen. Some are recipes waiting to be tried, and most are recipes that we go back to often.

When I saw this post by Flamingo Toes, I bookmarked it right away, because I wanted a cute cover for my recipe binder too! I don't quite have the patience for the needlework though, so I modified mine just a little bit. I think it turned out great, and I love the way it matches my kitchen!

So, I took a piece of canvas drop cloth that I have been using for a bunch of projects (like here and here), and followed the directions that Flamingo Toes gives for cutting a piece the right size - and marking the edges of the binder.

Then I sewed some zig zag lines from top to bottom, where the edge of the spine ended up...

...and I used colors that match my kitchen: blue, green and yellow.

Then, as I said, I am too lazy to needlepoint the words, so I decided to use paint! This is my second project using freezer paper as a stencil, and it is pretty fun. (My first project here gives more info).

I cut out the letters out of the freezer paper using my Silhouette, and ironed them down so that they would show on the front and spine of the binder.

I carefully dabbed a very small amount of acrylic paint in each letter, alternating between dark blue, light blue and green, to match my stitches and my kitchen!

Once it was dry, I peeled of the freezer paper, and the letters looked great!

Next I found an old spoon...

And hammered it flat (or at least I tried). It ended up really hammered...with dents and scratches that I didn't like...

So I put a piece of vinyl over it :)

I hot glued the fabric cover right onto the binder (just like Flamingo Toes described in her tutorial), and I hot glued the spoon onto the front.

And that was it! Quick project - which turned out so cute! And I went from boring this....